Hi, I'm Rina Ninean and this is Ask Lisa, the Psychology of Parenting Podcast.

It's a podcast to help parents better understand their kids. Dr. Lisa DeMore, a psychologist with three

decades of experience, and the author of three New York Times best-selling parenting

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Episode 152, will social media harm my kid?

So I finally gave in.

I didn't want to, but over Christmas I got my 11-year-old daughter, a cell phone. I realized either I get her cell phone because, you know, she's involved in so many activities and we've just kind of had a little bit of a difficult year, both of all of us staying in touch. So either I get her cell phone or I start to pay the cell phone of her friends, which she's calling from all the time to reach me. So we decided to get her,

her own phone. And you'll love it. I mean, I will tell you, Rina, I like being able to reach my

kid. And my, you know, I got my younger daughter a cell phone sooner than I got my older

daughter. And it's nice because I'll be like, all right, I'm five minutes away. I'm on my way.

I mean, it's, it's nice to be able to text your kid. So I wanted to get her an Apple Watch. So we're just

texting and that was it and she can message back. And I think it was because of social media. I just don't want her to have any social media. And I know this is horrible to look at the gender of kids like my son's a boy. He doesn't have social media either. But I would feel more comfortable letting him on than her. And anyway, she doesn't have social media. But it just got us thinking, you know, and we got this incredible letter about

looking at social media and how do you make sure it's a constant topic that it doesn't

harm your kid.

I'm going to read this to you, Lisa.

Yeah.

Hi, Dr. Lisa.

I want to write in because I'm getting so worried about social media as my kids grow older,

and I have no idea how to navigate it. As a mom of three, ages 9, 12, and 14,

...